Unrest

Unrest intensified following massive demonstrations in the Central Highlands in February 2001, Leaders of the Evangelical Christiani Churches of (South) Vietnam officially announced the Church legal statute operating under the direction of the Party. In a circular, they blamed the Christians of Dak Lak for involvement in agitation incited by the movement Dega. On the other hand, the authorities, taking advantage of the consequences caused by the unrest, sought to separate local Evangelical Christian from alleged Deaga remnants and stopped religious services and activities of other long-time independent Evangelical groups.

Members of domestic Churches, to whom the State attributed as “illegal Evangelicals” were unjustly charged with unfounded crimes. Many leaders were repeatedly convoked to police stations for interrogation. In most cases, these “work sessions” ended in physical abuses.  Hundreds of houses of worship of Evangelical groups were closed down, and many congregations were dissolved. Four hundred churches of the ethnic minority Ede at Dak Lak many of which had functioned for many years, were dissolved in Fall 2002 out of suspicion of subversive activities: Many Christians were suspected of involving in political actions. A number of leaders were arrested. Religious chiefs among them were tried and given sentences. Others simprly "disappeared," Still, others sought hiding somewhere to avoid police fatal extra-judiciary treatment. Oftentimes, leaders and chiefs were summoned to pledge before the authorities not to assemble the believers for preaching, saying prayers, or performing religious services. Marriages and funerals in the Christian rites were forbidden.

Anti-Christian Campaigns-- Conversion to Animism

Anti-Christian campaigns aiming at stopping the H'mong and Montagnards from practicing and performing religious services. Christians were forced to abandon faith. Interdiction program  included mandatory attendance at anti-Christian propaganda sessions followed by performance of “ancient” rites. The participants were subdued to obligation of drinking of a repugnant mixture of animal blood and rice wine. This performance attested they publicly professed abandonment of Evangelical Christianity and conversion to traditional beliefs --animism. Campaigns of this type were followed by police raids and house search operations to inspect house after house to find Bibles and other religious publications.

   

The Persecution

Beginning in the early months of 2004, persecution against the Montagnard Christians was voluminously executed with beatings, instances of forced renunciation of faith, and arrests.  Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh of the Mennonite Church in Gia Lai Province informed that the authorities had razed his chapel and private residence to the ground. His wife who was bearing a child was beaten. The pastor and his family had to find shelter in another place. They were not free from persecution from then on, however.

    

On July 25, 2005, the religious associates of Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh were convoked to the security police office. They were forced to pledge in to break relations with their pastor. On August 14, the pastor and 5 other fellow pastors were arrested while they were praying in communion in an assembly to share Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ. The security police adduced from false charge according to which the assembly was in practice a gambling party. They then had the obligation to disband it.   On November 11, the security organ came and expelled Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh and and his  family from their new home. During the first months of 2006, he was constantly trailed by secret security police agents. of Binh Khanh Ward. He was finally arrested. Bibles, and religious materials published by State-owned printing house and officially used by the Christian Churches throughout the country the pastor received from the Christian congregations in Saigon were confiscated.

Repression against Evangelical Christianity in Gia Lai Province was increasingly serious. Montagnard Christians had either to join the State-sanctioned Churches or leave their communes. In the early days of November 2005, many missionaries and pastors of the Mennonite Church of Chu A Commune were convoked “to work with” the province’s People Council. They were warned with threats for unknown motives. Y Rang and Y Djik  were  beaten.  Christians in the neighboring provinces suffered the sme fate. On November 7, Lt. Colonel Chan, the director of Pleiku township’s security Police, brought the missionaries Y-Kor, Y-Kat, Y-Rang, and Y-Djik to stand trial before a people’s assembly for crime revelation at Chu A Village. They were given an unspecified probation and released after that.  On February 7, 2005, officials of the People, s Council and security police of Gan Reo Commune, Duc Trong District, Lam Dong Province, broke away an assembly of the Christians of the Baptist Church that had officially operated in the country before the Communist takeover of South Vietnam. The action took place only one day after the issuance of the recommendations from the central administration according to which  the authorities at all levels had the obligation to help create favorable conditions for followers to practice their  religious services. 

   

On Easter Day (April 2005), the public security of Lam Dong Province aborted the religious celebration of the Montagnard Christian congregation led by Pastor Duong Thanh Lam that had officially operated before 1975.  Smoldering resentment ever resisted and brooded far into the modern era. Unrest spread, and arrests increased in number. During November 2005 - January 2006, a group of Momtagrads from Pleiku had to evade to and sought hiding in the forest in the province of Rattanakin, Kampuchea. Religious persecution was on the rise, although the government maintained that it had carried out policies “to erase hunger and reduce poverty” and to support the Montagards in both the economic and religious life, Security police still beat, tortured, and terrorized Montagard Christians. In pracytce, about 200 Christians were arrested due to their refusal to join one of the State-affiliated Christian Churches or demands for land for cultivation. They were forced to renounce their faith, but vowed to faithfully practice their religipos creed. They maintained that the authorities kept on repressing them out of fear for a popular uprising. Their demands nevertheless had nothing to do with unrest and demonstrations that took place in the Central Highlands in 2001 and 2004.  

Harassment persisted. The missionary Nguyen Ngoc Giao, on March 23, 2006, inforand  that the chairman of the People’s Council of Thanh My Township, Lam Dong Province Le Quang Hung  convoked him to “work” at his office for unspecified reasons. The missionary was then compelled to sign in a record of evidence admitting his guilt for having held assembly of religious activities without permission. Refuting the authorities’ argument, the missionary insisted that he had applied for authorization and registered with the local authorities and that the Church had performed religious activities for a long time. Discrimination prevailed. The State favored one Church but discriminates against another. Right in Lam Dong Province, one Christian Church was allowed to perform open religious activities while many others were not. There was no consistency in the State religious policy. The missionary and the Christians of his congregation vowed to continue to perform religious services and serve their faith no matter what would happen to him and the congregation.

Persecution befell the prominent leader of the Mennonite Church. At 8 P. M. on September 8, 2004, Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh was arbitrarily placed under police surveillance by order of the security police of Pleiku. The police confiscated his tape recorder on which he had recorded his interrogation by the security police of Pleiku. A mobile police checkpoint was posited in front of his house. Plainclothes police agents were on watch. All his connections to the outside, including conversations on telephone, were intercepted. The pastor was trailed wherever he went. He was lastly convoked to the security police for interrogation, The pastor was insulted and beaten behind closed doors. Other pastors and ministers were also convoked to “work with” the security police. They were also beaten. Among them were the ministers Y-Yan and Y-Dick, and Pastor Y-Kor. 

At 9:00: A.M. of March 8, 2007, a band of thugs broke into the residence of Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh and forced him to go “to work” with the authorities. Nguyen Thi Hong, the pastor’s wife, related that a large group of men clad like thugs stormed her house. Furious at her resistance, the band dragged the housewife out of the house and beat her brutally. She had to ask her neighbor to take care in her place of her children who the thugs chased out of the house. She could identify three men who had been seen on watch in front of her house and who had dragged her out of her house. They had many times caused  her trouble and injured her husband.  

        

At 9:00 P.M. of the same day, Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh was released. The authorities told him he had to go” to work” with them again, if not, they would go with guns to his house to shoot him and destroy his house aright.  The pastor answered that he would rather die than to be forbidden to preach his faith.  He wished he could take care of his family. He asked his relatives to help his family and his fellow Christians of the Mennonite Church in the Central Highlands.

Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh denounced that the State repeatedly caused him trouble. Security police warned him with threat, to imprison him  if he continued to contact with international media. All through May 14-23, 2007, they continually convoked him “to work” with them and forced him to guarantee not to give interview to foreign news agencies, particularly the RFA. If he continued to do so, he would be arrested. To this, the pastor replied that this was his rights to do this. He was not forbidden by the law. First, as a Vietnamese citizen, he has the right to do things that the law does not forbid. Second, he has the right to give an interview by means of which he could present instances of oppression he himself has experienced. He has to express the voice of conscience. And, he has chance to speak out his viewpoints. If they forbid him to do this, they should present themselves theirs in the light of the law in public. Until then could he comply with their order, The right to expression is recognized by the Constitution of Vietnam and the International Covenants for rights of Man. What he has acted is entirely in conformity with the Constitution of Vietnam and the International Covenants. No matter what the civil authorities will do, whether by threat, arrest and imprisonment or  whatever method they would use, he would ever voice his opinions, as he had ever acted in this way for the past 20 years. He had nothing but this right. He had been stripped off his rights of citizen, of his household registration certificate, and identification card.. He is a Vietnamese but is not treated as one. His family was living in Peiku without a household registration certificate. The security police did not grant him a temporary residence permit. He had come to register with it but had been denied to get one. Both the township and province security police did not want him to live in Pleiku. He had contacts with U.S. Mennonite and North America Mennonite, but the Churches there could only act within their competence to assist him.

The pastor could not perform his pastoral duty. The authorities do not recognize him as pastor, although he has his nomination confirmed and certified by International Mennonite. They confiscated these papers all.  They also seized his birth certificate, cell phone, camera, and motorcycle. All his belongings, including Bibles, were confiscated. His house, which is worth of 100 million $VN dong (approximately 550 US dollars), was dispossessed. He suffered frequent harassment and detention for interrogation. He was questioned about how he could afford to buy it and what organization had given him financial support. He replied that his house was only worth of 100 million $VN dong, and there was no need for financial support. He wondered why they do not conduct  investigation on how State rank-and-file officials and cadres could possess properties that are worth of billions of $VN dong. He wa  isolated from the community, and he was always in hard times to survive. He asked all religious communities, especially the Christian community, for support. He called on the world to pray for him and his Church (RFA March 28, 2007).        

Vile Tricks

 In the district of Ea Sup, province of Dak Lak, seven missionaries of the Ede ethnic minority came to an assembly to share the words of the Lord in a locality near the frontier of Kampuchea. These believers were arrested and detained for no reason by the frontier police. Each of them  had to pay a fine for  an amend of 350,000 $VN dong.

    

Ha Won, a missionary of the hamlet of Suoi Thong, Commune of Thanh My reported on how Christians are treated with discrimination::

"Like other students in other areas who finished secondary education, our children want to go to college. They can only register at the college departments for ethnic students at Nha Trang, Saigon, or a major city. But, the Service of Education of the province of Lam Dong gave us this warning:: "We do not accept the children whose parents or grand-parents are pastors or missionaries, or those whose parents are Christians. We have received written orders from superior authorities on this matter.."      

For a long time, the authorities of Dak Lak had in mind a "public policy" to deal with Evangelical Christianity in the Central Highlands. In 2002, in particular, they found out among Evangelical congregations a group of "Dega Christians," an impetus for a potential Christian opposition movement of more than 400 Churches in the province of Dak Lak in  Fall 2002. It is a peril to the regime, and measures should be taken to tear it off, Aware of this, the Reverend. Duong Thanh, President of the Evangelical Christian Churches of Vietnam in the South, presented the case in a letter addressed to the prime-minister, October 19, 2002. Dozens of reports on the critical situation of leaders of non-sanctioned Evangelical Churches that had been forced to dissolve and stop religious activities were sent to the Evangelical Christian Churches of Vietnam in the South for support. The reaction came to no result, however, A method used to disperse the Dega Christians and stop the activities of the group was openly diffused on the State television. Human Rights Watch disposes of a video cassette of a program of 25 minute diffused at Dak Lak, September 28, 2002.

     

An analysis based on facts and realities aired on the television of the State shows how tricks of propaganda were used to incite popular anger at the Christians. This vile action was easily perceived during a traditional ceremony when a whole community of Montagnards were reassembled for a public assembly presided over by the provincial and local authorities. At a glance, one can read on banners and placards slogans denouncing the “vile scheme” of evildoers destined to create national disorder. There appeared at the same time a scene of mine people who paraded with microphones in the hands and who, read hastily confessions and pledges of engagement, vowing to abandon the "illegal Christianity" and serve the Party. Piles of “illegal materials" seized were shown on the television screen. These materials comprise Bibles and books of catechism. In the show, there also appeared people signing documents, an indication that they truly wanted to mend their way. In another sequence of actions, a man of a tribal type, whose appearance bears features similar to those of a man born from an ethnic minority, One cannot refrain from thinking of him a man made out of wood being dragged from the far end of forest for presentation before the public. Curiously enough, he spoke to the camera. The voice sounded like Vietnamese, mumbling: " This television show is a challenge to evildoers and at the same time a true picture of Christianity and the minority people."

In a journal published in Dak Lak of May 17, 2002, one read under the heading "District of Kong Pak" an article entitled "16 families with 405 believers voluntarily renounced faith in Evangelical Christianity. In this article as well as in a radio program entitled "Internal policy," the propaganda boiled over anger of the public. The pressure created by this "internal policy" was so powerful that public officials had  to seek means to soften public anger, preventing people loyal to the regime from expressing blatant joy over the authorities’ success in their conversion of Christians to animism. Brazen lies were equally revealed.  No one could find trace of the 161 families who, according to the authorities, had abjured their faith. 

Ouside observers note that telling lies is common practice in this type of psycho-warfare propagand in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. In many instances, one hardly tells where lies the truth. The authorities in Dak Lak, as a case in evidence, would think imagination really works wonder when one successfully creates facts of which no one would ever have a doubt. They, therefore, could achieve brilliant work to stop the house church movement that was on the rise in the Central Highlands. They even improvised a plan of actions, imposing strict measures on the local Evangelical Churches and submerging them in inaction. They ordered public officials at the district and commune levels to force the leaders of the local Churches (pastors, ministers, and Church chiefs), especially those in the district of Dak Rlap, to observe the following guidelines:

    

1. No person is entitled "pastor" or "minister" in this sector. (Because the government never recognizes those who are nominated pasters by the Executive Committee of the Evangelical Christian Churches of (South) Vietnam even their titles are confirmed by official documents from the Church in this regard.)

       

2, There are no “Churches” in this sector. (since the authorities don't recognize them, even in certain places, hundreds of Christians are successful in observing their faith,  to pray and  profess faith  and loyalty to the Evangelical Christian Churches of Vietnam (South).

3. The directional committees of local Churches must be dissolved, and

        

4. All physical structures belonging to the Churches must be dismantled. If a Christian uses his house for religious services, the authorities will confiscate it, including personal propertiy: curtains, tables, chairs,, and so on.  (Previously, they had demolished three churches in the district of Dak Lak).

    

The authorities  fabricated information relating to the agitation sustained by the Dega, spreading news such as certain Church leaders in the district had signed documents of engagement with pledges to observe the authorities’ guidelines. Why had they signed such fallacious assertions? Most Christians believe that they had signed them in grievance and tears because they would have failed to resist pressure from the authorities. They shed more tears when they repented on what they had done before God. And these leaders would probably believed that the district authorities had only executed order from the provincial government and that if they did not sign the documents that day, they would have to sign them the following day. And, if they did not sign them the following day, the authorities would make them suffer even more pressure until they complied with the order. As a result, most Churches in the district could no longer perform religious services and neither could they celebrate the fete of Christmas 2002.

  

Why did the authorities of Dak Lak fabricate the story? Just to protect themselves merely from incapacity of creating work achievements. In truth, there were only few Churches in the sector, and they had already been recognized by the State. The President of the Evangelical Christian Churches of (South) Vietnam, in the letter to the prime- minister, specified that the story is a fallacy and that the so-called “leaders of the Churches,” that signed the documents with pledges were, in fact, non- existent.!

The truth is that the chief of the People's Council of Dak Lak declared to a disappointed delegation of the European Union on its visit to the Central Highlands in November 2002 that the religious situation in the province was stable, By that time, the central authorities came to terms with the representatives of the Evangelical Christian Churches of (South) Vietnam. It should be blamed for what had happened. The fake story raised doubt about whether or not the leaders of the Churches were worthy of trust.  they themselves would have to give an answer!

   

 Fallacy exists elsewhere in the Central Highlands, in Lam Dong Province as a case in evidence, there was a certain number of Christian students who followed their studies in the schools reserved for the youth of the ethnic minorities of Lam Dong could assemble to celebrate the annual Christmas Eve. Nevertheless, on Christmas 2003, the authorities of the school forbade them to go to church to observe the cult on the days of grand ceremony and other holy days such as Easter Day. They did not give them permission to have a Bible in their bedroom. These directives encroached upon them.They were even barred from practicing their faith. Worse still,  Christian Students would only be allowed to continue their study at tnstitutions  of higher education with approval from the authorities,  (Two Distinct and Conflicting Policies The Protestant Experience: A Report of the Evangelical Alliance of Canada.  EDA 371, March 16, 2003).

Many official reports show excitement over the success of this "internal policy." On May 22, 2002, the security organ of the district of Khanh Son of the province of Khanh Hoa did not dissimulate self-confidence. The authorities congratulated themselves on having "mobilized 28 families of Christians of 90 people to abandon their religion." In another instance, the police of Khanh Son affirmed to have given 100,000 $VN dong (about US$ 7) as premium to each family in the area for compensation for  abjuring Christianity. To an outsider, these reports were proofs of an anti-Christian "internal policy."

The Persecution against Evangelical Christianity in the Central Highlands

In mid-2002, International Christian Concern published a report on the persecution of H'mong Christians. The Compass Direct, a specialized press service, circulated a dozen of reports on the consequences of the application of the "internal policy" of the Vietnamese administration against 1.2 million of Evangelical Christians in Vietnam. Following is the testimony of the missionary Dinh Van Troi, a victim of religious persecution in the Central Highlands:

   

"Allow me to sum up certain instances of misfortune that befell me when I was in prison. My condemnation to prison was a great honor because I suffered so much with the Lord for this whole period of time; then, the Lord opened the door, and I I could be liberated from suffering. During the time of ordeal, I wished to endure all what they had done against me. I’d better face the cruelty of the police! I preferred to preserve my faith.  I preferred to stay in prison than revealing to them the things that could produce unfortunate consequences. I rather die than living a life that would bring me a life without meaning. I am deprived of my freedom, but they cannot take away the freedom of belief.

     

In the prison, they said to me: "There is only the religion of Good News" (Evangelical Christian Church) that is forbidden by the government and the Party. If you adhere to that religion, you violate the law." When I asked them to say exactly of what law they spoke, they threatened me: "The religion of Good News is an American religion, a religion that opposes the State." I replied: "The religion “Good News” is the religion of the Lord, of Heaven, it comes from Heaven."

   

They accused me of calumniating the cadres, opposing the government, and doing irreparable harm to the society. I sent petitions, requesting decent treatment of Christians as promised by the government. As I had not signed in these documents, they accused me of having helped people write  petitions to protest against injustice. Also, for that reason, persecution against me doubled. The tribunal ordered that I be detained for two months (from September 23 to November 23, 2000).

   

Troubles in the Central Highlands  

In February 2001, troubles agitated the population of the Central Higlands. Y Luyen Niec Dan, the secretary of the provincial section of the Communist Party in Dak Lak, declared that 11 people, who had spruced up the demonstrations in the province, were going to be brought to stand trial before the regional tribunal. The Party secretary added that the local authorities would execute firm measures right on the spot against "those who abuse the Protestant faith of the inhabitants in the province to distort the truth and sabotage the Revolution."                                    

    

Eyewitnesses to instances o repression recounted that right in the beginning, chaos spread everywhere in the city. Amid the chanting slogans of 4,000 Montagnards from different ethnic minorities were shouts of protest of volunteers who marched thfough the streets of Pleiku . One could hear cries for "freedom for our religion" voice of protests against State confiscation of “ancestral lands” and religious repression. Brutal police crackdown on the protesters ensued. Hundreds of Montagnards were arrested on charges for sabotage of national security.

The authorities, at the start, hesitated to mention the religious motivation of the trouble as it could incite anger among the protesters. The first official  public notices were only published after the re-establishment of order in Pleiku following February 3 and the end of the protests in Buon Me Thuot and in other localities of the province of Dak Lak. The authorities were pleased to speak of the protests as being motivated by "agrarian problems"  and not because of religious freedom and land claims. They nevertheless pronounced before the protest was unlatched the arrests of two Montagnards who divulged rumors damaging public security, and who were released thereafter. An official notice mentioned the name K’sor Kokthe, director  of the “Foundation of Mountaineers,” whose seat is in Sparttanburg, North Carolina, U.S.A., as the instigator of the riot. This foundation is, in fact, an organization of the Montagnardes exiles in the United States. The organization declared that the two accused in question were the members of the local Evangelical Church and that they were tortured before the release.

On March 7, 2001, an article in the official journal An Ninh (Public Security), launched attack on the Foundation. The journal situated this group in the line of the FULRO (Front Unifie pour la Liberation des Races Opprimees), the most influential movement that were active during many years in the  Central Highlands following the change of the regime in 1975, but was then in abeyance.

The article stressed the role and activities of the Foundation, mostly relating the connections of the Evangelical missionaries in the United States with the agitators in the ethnic minorities. In mid-March 2001, the journalist who was authorized to accompany State officials in a tour in the Central Highlands disclosed that these officials repeatedly stressed that the the tour had  nothing to do with the religious question. However, in the telegrams to his office, the journalist jotted down what he had heard from the local inhabitants. The clandestine Evangelical Churches played an important role in the demonstrations, and crackdown on the Evangelicals took place.

   

Some time later, the official press divulged charges, accusing the domestic Evangelical Churches and their protectors abroad of fomenting troubles. It even contended that for a long time the ideologists of the Party had suspected the Protestant Churches in the Central Highlands of serving as an instrument for the American strategy of peaceful evolution. In an article of the official journal Lao Dong  (the Worker), on March 28, 2001, the editor enumerated the wrongdoings of trouble makers right after the events, It made clear that, in a village, these trouble makers forced the population to bring with them financial contributions to the construction of a chapel to shelter those who projected  to spread disorder.

   

As a result, the local authorities conducted a search-through operation to discover those who were really responsible for the troubles. A telegram of the AFP of March 19, 2001 cited as proof the declarations of the chief of the Party Commission for Propaganda, accusing certain foreign government representatives for having stepped in the Central Highlands incidents to foment opposition to the State of Montagnards dissidents. Charges against the clandestine Evangelical congregations and their protectors abroad doubled. According to official investigations, opposition could hardly take place in the Central Highlands where poor communication is a serious problem, Only could a network of clandestine domestic Churches be  efficient and consistent enough to facilitate a movement of protest. To some observers, the Churches had carefully prepared for the movement in  secret, and that surprised everyone. Were the Christians who were going to serve as scapegoats or were they truly the actors of this event?  Only history can tell.Anyway, they were already the first victims of the repression.  Eleven fomenters were brought to stand trial before the People’s Court,  (EDA 334).

Protests persisted. Harsh condemnations were pronounced against the  leaders of the movement of protest taking place in February 2001 in  the Central High Plands. In April 2001, two months after the demonstrations of the Montagards, Y Luyen Niec Dam, the secretary of the Party section of the Dak Lak, declared to execute firm measures against evildoers. The official journal Tin Tuc, reported that 11 people, who were accused of having fomented opposition against the State in the recent demonstrations, were going to be brought to stand trial before the regional People’s Court. Later, in June 2001, the official press reported that some 40 people were going to be  brought before the People’ s Court of Gia Lai. The process was slow. It was not until the end of September of that year that the trials could take place.  Repressionwas pervasive in the Central Highlands

To calm down the Evangelical Church, the authorities came to terms with the leaders. The news of a reconciliation meeting was announced by the official press on June 19, 2001. For the first time since the official recognition of the Evangelical Church of South Vietnam on April 3, 2001, a delegation comprising members of the Executive Board of the Church led by Pastor Pham Thieu paid an official visit to Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. The Vietnamese journal Vietnam News, July 20, 2001, published a photo of the prime minister with his Evangelical hosts accompanied by the director of the Bureau of Religious Affairs, Le Quang Vinh. The journal also reported that Pastor Pham Thieu had made a trip from South Vietnam to Hanoi to greet the prime-minister and government officials. The two parties exchanged views and agreed on a plan for unification of the Evangelical Church. Pastor Pham Thieu thanked the prime-minister and the government for their support.

In the pasr, there had been assurances. A general assembly of the Evangelical Church was scheduled to take place in the Evangelical Church at 155 Tran Hung Dao Street, Ho Chi Minh City. February 7-9, 2001. According to Vietnam News, during the audience, the pastor also expressed wish according to which "the faithful of his Church will build their religion in line with the principles of the Evangelical faith, to honor God, the Nation, and the Fatherland."  For his part, the prime minister spoke of the economic and social development of the country under “Doi Moi” (Renovation) as projected by the XIth Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, December 1986. He reaffirmed the attachment of the Party and government to the respect for religious freedom. He hoped to see the believers and atheists of Vietnam to cooperate together to forge national unity.                                 

This official meeting between the Christian leaders and the government was described as “entirely formal” as there had been  a certain coolness among the authorities and leaders of the religion since the creation of the Evangelical Church of South Vietnam in February 2000. There was nevertheless hope for a move forward in the relations between the State and the Church, On February 9, 2001, the general assembly of the Evangelical Church elected Pastor Pham Thieu as President of the Central Executive Committee. According to sources, the committee considered itself an independent organ. In particular, its president, Pastor Pham Thieu presented on his own initiatives a program of action for the four years requiring the authorities to modify their policy with regard to the Evangelical Church of Vietnam Incidents of unrest nevertheless still unfolded.

On September 27, 2001, it was learned that a trial  had  taken place the day before at Buon Me Thuot. At the outset, the sentences ranging from six to eleven years of imprisonment were given to seven members of the ethnic minority Ede. They were charged with crimes of sabotage of national security. No foreign journalist was admitted to the trial. The official press reported that one of the convicts was found in possession of arms. The two most  harsh sentences, eleven and ten years in prison, were given to the two militants, Y Nuten Bya and Y Rin Kpa.

    

The spokesman of the Court declared that this trial at Buon Me Thout must be the first of a series of others that shoud take place in Dak Lak and in the neighboring provinces of Gia Lai and Kontum. Nevertheless, the news agency Reuters cited as proof a source according to which other analogous trials might have taken place in February and March in other provinces of the Central Highlands.              

      

On September 28, 2001, seven Montagnards were convicted  at a  two-day trial that ended on September 27, 2001 at Pleiku in Gia Lai Province. The convicted were members of the ethnic minorities Ede and Bahnar. The leader of the group, “Bom,”  was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The others topped penalties from six to eleven years in prison.  Besides, the accused, in addition to serving their prison terms, were assigned to residence surveillance, from three to five years.

     

The official press sustained the accusations by the Court, blaming the fomenters in the troubles in the Central Highlands in February 2001 while attenuating the role played by the religion during the crisis. As early as April 1991, it still maintained that those fomenters were the trouble-makers. The cause of demonstration of the Central Highlands thus became more political than social or religious. Summarizing the trial, the official daily Nhan Dan, in particular, affirmed that the troubles of February were led by “the forces hostile to the Vietnamese Revolution.” The hostile group that launched the demonstrations was supported by the members of the FULRO (Front Unifie pour la Liberation des Races Opprimees). This organization had struggled beside the Americans during the Vietnam War, and part of members of this group took refuge in the United States. The Montagnards Foundation was cited by name as the key instigator.

    

These harsh condemnations were only a part of a press campaign to prepare ground for a political scheme, winning back popular confidence of the ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands in the Party. Nong Duc Manh, the Secretary-general of the Communist Party, who himself a descendant of the ethnic minority of Tay, played a key role, proclaiming himself the head of this campaign of conquest of mind and heart. At the beginning of September 2001, he met the representatives of 53 different ethnic minorities. He assured them of social equality between diverse ethnic groups of Vietnam and this program be carried out in the coming days. In mid-September, he made a trip of four days in the Central Highlands. While in Kontum and Dak Lak, he made a long stop at the commune of Poco in the district of Dak To where the inhabitants of the ethnic Ro Ngao are quasi-totally Catholic. In the province of Gia Lai, he called on the authorities to rectify the errors they had committed in the past.

 

Neither repression nor persuasion occurred until then. Nevertheless, the promises of the Party Secretary-general made could not brake the exodus of the Montagnards who crossed the Vietnamese-Kampochean frontiers to  seek refuge in Kampuchea. In September 2001, there were 67 Rgo crossed the frontier illegally in the hope that they could seek political asylum in the province of Mondolkiri. On the whole, since the beginning of the exodus to October 2001, some 503 people, 176 of whom are children, reached Kampuchea, evaded the repression that was raging the Central Highlands .of  Vietnam. At the beginning of the exodus, the Communist State was angry to see Kampuchea to accord the refugee status to the migrants and welcome humanitarian aids from the United States. The negotiations for stopping illegal immigrants from Vietnam between the two neighboring countries came to no result. According to a Kampuchean source, a Kampuchean delegation came to Hanoi in the week of October 7-13 to discuss this thorny problem, but still came to no solution. Evangelicals of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands endured so much repression as did their brethren in the North.

A police agent of Kim Tan, Plei Ngo, district of Azunpa in Kontum, declared to the Christian missionary Ama Bun of the Church of the people of Jarai in Pleiku: "If we take by chance someone who is preaching the Gospel, we will cut his ears and fine him an amend of f$VN 2 million “dong.” The president of the People's Council of the commune of Kim Tan, district of Azunpa declared: "Whoever wants to adhere to the religion of Gospel has to give to the government a cow and 500,000 $VN dong.”  Nevertheless, “the believers still have faith in the Lord.” (The Commission of Religious Freedom of World Evangelical Union in Singapore in February 2000. (EDA May 2000).